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For ages I’ve been annoyed that MSN minimizes to the windows 7 task bar, instead of the system tray like in older versions of windows.

I’ve been investigating with my good friend Google, and have found a simple, and very effective way to achieve this. As described in this blog, it is as easy as setting the msnmsgr.exe file to run in compatibility mode for vista, which will cause MSN to minimize to the system tray when closed, rather than to the task bar like in windows 7 by default.

Simply navigate to the MSN root folder, which should be under C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Live\Messenger. Then locate the msnmsgr.exe file, right click it and select Properties.

Click on the Compatibility tab, and then check the box called Run this program in compatibility mode for, then from the drop down select Windows Vista (Service Pack 2).

Click Ok, and then restart MSN.

And that’s it, MSN will now display in the System tray, instead of the task bar.